., on the fiscal cliff, 26 days to go before the deadline. president obama was back at it campaign-style. went to the home of one middle class family in virginia, saying if the middle class tax cuts expire when the deadline hits it will cost the family an equivalent of a month's rent. meanwhile, john boehner started the talks after a standoff that lasted almost a week. then there was the surprise that rocked the capital today. south carolina conservative, jim demint, a hero to many, is retiring next month. to go run the influential heritage foundation nbc's david gregory, the moderator of "meet the press," has more on the surprise announcement. >> reporter: about four years early, a lot of people thought it would happen by 2017, but not at this point. in his term, demint was somebody who turbo-charged the tea party movement. he told me he would like to see the party really adopt more of these tea party ideas. that really didn't happen. there were more internal fights. he did have success in fielding candidates and also failed. he said they di